Business strategic management

Part A:

Organisational background

The organisation Gousto is a meal kit retailer founded in the year of 2012. The organisation is efficient to choose good recipes for their food items and maintain box system for providing tiffin services to the clients (Gousto, 2020a). The business model of the company is food delivery services where the company sends the customers pre-portioned and sometimes partially-prepared food ingredients and recipes to prepare home cooked meals. The recipes and ingredients, both are efficient to serve the clients with high quality culinary services (Gousto, 2020a).

Mission statement of Gousto

The mission statement of the company Gousto is,

“To become the most-loved way to eat dinner, delivering precise ingredients and delicious recipes, directly to homes, we harness technology to offer families a new, better way to shop and cook.” And the values are,

• Variety
• Quality
• Simplicity

This is the mission statement of the company where Gousto aims at achieving the future sustainable development in the UK market by serving the customers innovatively. The creative culinary services, lesson to cook at home with latest ingredients as well as providing sustainable and organic ingredients to the customers are the major strategies of the organisation to gain high market share and run the business in a sustainable way (Gousto, 2020b).

As per the Wilson and Gilligan’s “six tests of a successful mission statement”, it is necessary to evaluate the mission statement of Gousto and in this regard the six components are such as,

• Be adaptable
• Encapsulate the organisation’s key skills
• Be achievable
• Signal threats and opportunities in future market
• Be specific enough to guide the behaviour of the organisational staff
• Be based on fulfilling customers’ needs and satisfaction rather than on the products characteristics

The above mentioned mission statement is adaptable in Gousto, where the organisational leader and management team focus on achieving future sustainable development. They try to serve the customers with more innovation and creativity to achieve the best position in the food retail industry of the UK. Hence, the mission statement and strategy is adaptable by the organisation (Gousto, 2020c). On the other hand, it is achievable, as the company Gousto has the capability to serve the customers creatively with precise ingredients and delicious recipes. The company is efficient to maintain financial stability and it is also helpful to achieve the mission by securing future sustainable development. Thirdly, the company is efficient to encapsulate the organisation’s key skills, where the staff and management team get effective training and development program for enhancing their key knowledge and culinary skills to serve the clients efficiently (Gwynn, 2019). On the other hand, continuous support from the organisational leader at Gousto and partnership working practice also provide a scope to the staff to develop their efficiency in serving the client with high quality ingredients and delicious recipes. Additionally, the company focuses on customer’s actual needs and preferences and it further influence the firm to get the best idea to supporting the clients with precise ingredients and delicious recipes (Gwynn, 2019). Hence, as per the Wilson and Gilligan’s “six tests of a successful mission statement”, the mission statement of Gousto is efficient to support the staff for performing better and providing high quality services with precise ingredients and delicious recipes (Gousto, 2020c).

Reasons of future investment of Gousto

In the summer of 2019, Gousto raised fund of £30m additional investment through private equity firm Perwyn; and the total external investment is about £100m. It is advantageous for Gousto to invest in marketing strategy through social media campaign. It is beneficial to improve brand loyalty and increase the brand image in the UK market (Gousto, 2020b). It also provides a scope to expand the business and hire more efficient staff members to serve the clients within a short period of time. In the recent era of globalisation, there is high influence of e-commerce and online buying activities as well as the needs and preferences of the customers are also changing over the period of time, where the clients seek more innovative preciouses, new ingredients and innovative culinary skills to prepare homemade and healthy food items (Gwynn, 2019). Rising fund through the public equity is hereby beneficial for Gousto to arrange the social media campaign as well as attract more clients in the market through which Gousto can strengthen their customer’s base as well as manage the clients efficiently within effective time. Further investment would be required by Gousto to expand the business and strengthen their supply chain in the UK market where it is possible to retain the clients and serve them with delicious recipes and precise ingredients (Gwynn, 2019). Through future investment, the business can expand their activities, manage distribution network, develop IT framework so that it would be possible to secure future sustainable development.

Describing five environmental challenges

The environmental challenges are there which have critical impacts on the business activities. The major environmental challenges related to the business of Gousto are such as climate change, high emissions of greenhouse gas emission increasing air pollution, the plastic packaging system, lack of food waste management and Loss of Biodiversity. These are the major challenges for which the business firm can face further threats in operating their activities in the market (Torp and Andersen, 2020). Food waste management is necessary and due to lack of strategic planning in waste management, the firm will face high threat in operating in the market. Additionally, plastic packaging system is not good for environmental ecosystem and it raises the issue of lack of sustainability in business operations (Torp and Andersen, 2020). On the other hand, the organisation will face the problem related to loss of biodiversity as well as high emissions of greenhouse gas in the environment. There is distribution network, where the cars are utilised to distribute the food items and it increases the emissions of greenhouse gases. On the other hand, climate change is also another major challenge to run the business efficiently. Hence, the environmental challenges have critical impacts on the business operations of Gousto where the firm will face difficulties to secure future sustainable development and satisfy the customers in long run.

Part B:

Big ideas of organisation

Through mind map, it is possible to recognise the strategy of the brand Gousto to fulfil its mission in near future.

Reference List

• Gousto, 2020a. About us. [Online]. Available at: https://www.gousto.co.uk/blog/about-gousto [Accessed 30 November, 2020].
• Gousto, 2020b. Strategy. [Online]. Available at: https://www.gousto.co.uk/ [Accessed 30 November, 2020].
• Gousto, 2020c. Our suppliers. [Online]. Available at: https://www.gousto.co.uk/blog/our-suppliers [Accessed 30 November, 2020].
• Gwynn, S., 2019. ‘Gousto aims to make recipe boxes "the UK's favourite way to eat dinner"’, Campaign, 29 August 2019. [Online]. Available at: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/gousto-aims-recipe-boxes-the-uks-favourite-eat-dinner/1595136 [Accessed 30 November, 2020].
• Torp, S. and Andersen, T.J., 2020. Adapting to Environmental Challenges: New Research in Strategy and International Business. London: Emerald Group Publishing.

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